No progress for ProGress

Now in the last 20 months of his term of office, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) has been obviously all over the place here and abroad. While he chalked up to 47 foreign travels in the past four years of his term, PBBM undertook far greater number of provincial trips and visits in fair and bad weather.

All in one day, PBBM visits one, two, up to three provinces for inspection and interaction with our people in the countryside. At age 69 – he turned a year older just last month – PBBM can physically hack it though. He has at his disposal anyway the presidential transport facilities to ensure his convenience and safe travels to every place he visits.

For this year, PBBM’s foreign travels were cut down after he suffered an acute case of diverticulitis last January. It required a brief visit in hospital. Four months later, PBBM did “jumping jacks” and a short jog around Malacañang Palace grounds to publicly dispel persistent rumors and social media claims regarding his supposed failing health. 

For his eighth foreign trip this year, PBBM just completed a five-day “working visit” to Singapore. His latest foreign travel included a “President’s time” yesterday to watch his favorite Formula 1 competition in Singapore. It was PBBM’s third time to watch the F-1 Grand Prix. Less than four months after he was installed into office, PBBM flew quietly to Singapore to watch the first F-1 Grand Prix in October 2022.

Presidential spokesperson Claire Castro repeatedly defended and justified PBBM’s latest F-1 trip to Singapore as a “must do” on his part. Castro insisted it gives the President the opportunity to conduct up close and personal interaction with supposed potential investors and international businessmen on the sidelines of the F-1 event. She quoted PBBM rationalizing his F-1 attendance: “It would be better for transactions if there are face-to-face meetings.” 

At the very least, it came in the midst of the continuing impact of the Middle East (ME) conflict on the global economy that has been crippling oil-dependent countries like the Philippines. With pump prices of refined oil products breaching P100 per liter, our country’s inflation rate surged to 6.4 percent as of last month.

Again, the timing of the F-1 trip of PBBM to Singapore was off. 

Given the modern and advanced information communication technologies, such face-to-face meetings are already effectively replaced by “zoom conferencing” online. Moreover, official documents or papers are now accepted in official transactions through electronic signatures. 

With the Philippines as this year’s chairman and host of the Leaders’ Summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), PBBM stays here to preside over the meetings taking place in Manila next month. But there is still one more “must go” foreign trip that PBBM will embark on in the last two months of the year. Barring unforeseen events, the Chief Executive is slated to participate in the Leaders’ Summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) scheduled next month to be hosted by and held in China. 

In this last stretch of the Marcos administration, the other designated “gatekeepers” at Malacañang Palace are keeping a close tab on the remaining “to do” list not ticked off yet, or no check mark to date. One of them is newly designated Presidential Legislative Liaison Office (PLLO) Secretary Jose “Joey” Sarte-Salceda. 

A known supporter of fellow Bicolano, former vice president Leni Robredo, Salceda ran but lost in his gubernatorial bid in Albay in the mid-term elections in May last year. Regarded as the House resident economist during his long congressional stint in the past, he lauded PBBM for looking beyond political colors and appointing him to the Cabinet.

Salceda disclosed he has many “to do” things on his desk as the immediate go-between of the Chief Executive with leaders and members of the Senate and the House of Representatives since he got appointed in July this year. Based at the Palace, the PLLO chief also holds satellite offices at the Senate in Roxas Boulevard and at the Lower House at the Batasan Pambansa, Quezon City. 

On top of his “to do” list are the 21-23 bills under the common legislative agenda remaining on the plate in both chambers of the 20th Congress. These bills comprised half of the original number that were put together a year ago in the first regular session of Congress. These pending administration bills were culled from the agreement reached in the last Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) that the President convened after his penultimate State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July.

In fairness to Salceda, he inherited these proposed bills pending in various stages of the legislative mill and now he has to shepherd them along with new administration bills that were added from the latest SONA. One of which was the President’s SONA promise to remove all together the systems losses from the monthly electric bills of Filipino households and businesses. 

This SONA promise of PBBM was subsequently initiated in a bill authored by Speaker Faustino Dy III and presidential son, House majority leader Sandro Marcos. To carry this out, both lawmakers sought to amend specific provisions of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA).

Salceda’s first output as PLLO chief that got fast tracked approval in Congress was Republic Act 12326 extending to five years the term of office of all village officials nationwide. This is now being questioned at the Supreme Court (SC) for having effectively postponed the scheduled Nov. 2, 2026 Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections to November 2028.

A veteran politician, Salceda is confident RA 12326 will stand the scrutiny of the SC. But the PLLO chief is less optimistic about the proposed new tax measures under the administration bill called Promoting Growth, Revenue and Equity towards Socio-Economic Sustainability, or Pro-GRESS for short.

Frankly, he is seeing no progress for the new tax bills with the next presidential elections in May 2028 just around the corner.